“Finally, the wait is over,” said K. Baskaran, the chief coach of the yet-to-be-named Chennai franchise, to The Hindu here on Sunday. Whenever those close to him would ask him why nobody from the city/State would bid for a team in the ProKabaddi League (PKL), he would say: “it would come soon.”
“Now,” [that the team is formed] said the 48-year-old from Suliyakkottai in Thanjavur, “people will be relieved and so I am to coach the team.”
The chief coach said the Chennai franchise was raring to go with the matches in Chennai most likely to be held at “the end of September.”
Keeping in mind the inclusion of four new teams, and consequently more number of matches, the Chennai franchise entered the auction with a clear strategy. “We are the only franchise who have picked the maximum number of players — 25 — and we are the only team who have got the maximum number of foreigners — four,” said Baskaran.
“We have only two well-known players, Amit Hooda and Ajay Thakur, and the rest (except C. Arun from Tamil Nadu) are youngsters,” said Baskaran. “We are confident and our goal at the moment is to reach the play-offs.”
As PKL season-5 will be a long haul, the number of injuries is likely to be high. “That’s why we picked 25 instead of 18, so that we can give enough chances and rest to the players,” he said.
Being new to the sport, the Chennai franchise had previous experience only in football (Indian Super League) and Premier Badminton League, the inclusion of Baskaran as the coach was a big scoop.
“We were fairly new to the sport and we had less time from the day our franchise was formed. So getting Baskaran on board was a huge plus as he has enough knowledge having been a part in previous four editions of the PKL [with Jaipur Pink Panthers (three years) and one year with Puneri Paltan],” said Varun Tripuraneni, CEO of the franchise.
The addition of seven first-timers into the Chennai franchise from the talent hunt launched by Mashal Sports, Star Sports and Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, will be an added attraction.
“All over India, 6000 players took part in the hunt. They selected 320 for the camp held at Sports Authority of India (Gandhi Nagar) and from the camp shortlisted 133, and from that they had a final camp in Mumbai and chose 56 and distributed it among all the teams,” said Baskaran.
According to Baskaran, the talent hunt is a very good move which will help develop the sport.
Tamil Nadu players are being represented in nine of the 12 franchises, and it is a sign that the State players are second to none. “There are 19 players from Tamil Nadu in PKL and we have eight of them,” said Baskaran.
Calling Amit Hooda, the most expensive pick of the franchise at ₹63 lakh, as “the pillar of the team”, Baskaran said that Ajay Thakur would be the likely choice of captain.
Varun said the name of the franchise and the captain would be announced next month, while expressing happiness about the venue.
He said the franchise was very happy with Nehru Indoor Stadium. “We did a recce a week before the auction. “It is a great venue and probably one of the biggest in PKL,” he said.
Once the captain and the name of the franchise are decided, the team will hit the ground running. “Hopefully, we will have the crowd support and its blessings,” said Baskaran.
